Muslim youth need to wake up. Mos Def, Q-tip, Lupe nor anyone else will represent Islam properly. They are selling themselves for money. All of this comes with the territory. It would be a shame for Muslim organizations like IMAN to call Lupe back to perform at their annual event.

ONE hot night last summer, just past midnight, I discovered that in the apartment building across the street from my duplex in Fort Greene there was a little crack house.

I was parking my car after a late movie, the windows down because my air-conditioning was broken, when I heard a man and a woman arguing on the sidewalk. I didn’t know them, but they weren’t new faces to me. In the four years I’d lived in the apartment on South Oxford Street, I’d walked past them many times. They were constantly moping around the block with glassy eyes, scratching themselves, and muttering. Any New Yorker could tell they were crackheads.

I never gave much thought as to why these two crackheads were on my block so often. Some days in Fort Greene you walk past celebrities like Adrian Grenier or Colson Whitehead or Mos Def. Some days you walk past a crackhead.

But the intensity of their arguing piqued my interest, so I sat in the car to see how it played out. After a moment the woman threw a few crumpled-up bills at the man. They bounced off his chest and fell to the pavement. He scooped them up, walked to the window of a nearby apartment and passed the bills into a window.

Read the rest of this article here.

This reminds me of finding crack vials behind the building back in Starrett City when I was little.

Today On Tuesday I tried to get on the Brian Lehrar show. One of the screeners asked me what I wanted to share. So I said.. “Similar to Bill Clinton (’s affair in the Oval office with Monica) this instance should be seen as a broader societal problem”. She asked if I could rephrase my question to a legal one. She said they were no longer taking calls on whether he should resign or not. So I guess what that meant is: What he did was immoral because it was illegal, not that it was immoral because it was immoral and its illegal because its immoral. I was not able to quickly reframe my question and was asked to call back. There is a discussion on the WNYC website so I’ll just link this post there.

My first reaction to the news was disappointment and secondly disgust. I was on a line in a bank and CNN was on. In his 2 minute apology he stated: “I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family” and “violates my or any sense of right and wrong”.. Its interesting that he admits not to hiring a prostitute but rather to having lost his sense of morality. The question everyone must ask themselves is where do we get our sense of morality from in the first place?

When I was doing my bachelors at St. Johns University, I took a class entitled: “Philosophy of Ethics and Morality”. Although SJU is a Catholic University the professor of that course attempted to get us to accept Homosexuality as being okay amongst other dubious things. In this course she (and the textbook) stated about 7 base philosophies which people can use to derive their morality from. Of those philosophies only one references God, that was the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. His philosophy took the Bible as an ultimate standard. In that course most students trumped arguments for this philosophy because they would always state it was impractical to follow. For example when abortion was spoken about, one student said: “…Well the bible also says not to have sex before marriage.. but we all do that!..”. When it came to Capital Punishment one student chose to be against it based on the same philosophy and stated that Jesus was turn the other cheek. I then posed to him the question: “Does turning the other cheek establish justice?”. And he answered: “No”. There you had it, another impracticality. Why am I bringing up Christianity and Philosophy while Elliot Spitzer is Jewish? Well the question of morality always comes down to not your religion, but your adherence to principles which you uphold without fail. I would go on to argue that if you do not subscribe to a lifestyle pleasing to God, your own desires will become your God and you will do anything you feel like doing.

Now what boggles my mind is how he gets caught. He was the top prosecutor in the state and went after so many corporations. He must know that in this digital age, your digital footprint is irremovable. How could he use his bank account to make payments. A simple audit from the IRS could have uncovered this. Was he that horny that not only was he paying for a 3gs-an-hour-Hookers, but makes an account on their website! Is he stupid? He shut down very illegal operations like this one before, doesn’t he realize his information can not be kept confidential for long.

When Bill Clinton was caught with Monica. Many Americans were not bothered by it. Some people say Spitzer did what many European leaders do and get away with, so why should we care. The reason why people are not shocked and offended by this kind of behavior is because they themselves find themselves caught up in immoral situations. Some say lets focus on moving America forward in order to dismiss this issue. What’s messing us up badly is sex-craze which is ruining American society.

Living in a sex-crazed society leads to more than just embarrassment for elected officials. It also leads to 1 in 4 Teen girls having STDs.

Listen to this

Moral relativism sucks.

Popular Muslim Blogger Umar Lee wrote a not so obviously satirical letter from Obama about his religious identity. This is also a racial issue because it has to do with Obama’s roots.

On a related note, Mitt Romney interacts with parade marchers on MLK day and stumbles over himself trying to use pop/hip-hop references. While taking pictures with a group of black kids he says “Who let the dogs out!” WTH, what a moron! Then he refers to a little black baby as Michael Jordan, says bling bling and comments on a little girls pretty (white) gloves! One youtube commenter says this must be his first time around black people (causing him to act so awkwardly). He wouldn’t do the same thing with prospective voters of the Caucasian race would he?

Watch the video here:

Well now Recently Dave was in the UK and did a short stand up bit. Watch Then Read my commentary (Warning!: Its Dave Chappelle! - not appropriate for all audiences!)

As you can see, he was smoking on stage (yuck), curses a little bit and he made jokes in reference to Marajuana. But hey at least he said Salaam and Eid Mubarak!

I love it, don’t you? Learn more about Mohammed Ali aka Aerosol Arabic.

btw check out: http://savestarrettcity.org/

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In the previous years the line at Staples would be quite civilized and would only attract the geeky types. This year it was hooded out. While there were 20-30 people in front of us to start, when time came for the door to open about 30 more people tried to jump the line and come right in. The last half hour there were alot of disputes taking place. One hood lady was like… “Get up out of my space.. this ain’t no Internet Sh*t, this ain’t no myspace.com!”. Another Jamaican woman yelled “Open Dee Damn Doors”. One person who was cutting was called out by this lady who wasn’t having it. She was pointing at him, saying “you wasnt here in the beginning!”. So then he proclaimed.. “I Just want my TV and I’m out”. Everytime people would act up others would either laugh, egg on a fight, or start complaining and fighting themselves.

The crowd was getting unruly even though there was a police car right there. As one of my friends yelled out.. “Theyre too busy eating donuts!”. When the doors opened it seemed as if people were going to get crushed. Especially this Desi Aunti in the front, and this small chinese woman in front of me. The cops all of a sudden decide to jump in. As my cousin is entering the door, one of the cops grabs him from the back and pulls him mad hard in order to gain position in front. They let in about 30 people. Just as I’m about to get in this cop starts pushing me. Everyone is pushing me from behind. And this cop is shoving me like anything from the front. One of my friends got pushed so hard that he ended up behind the entire crowd. Then they make us wait outside while everyone who got in is fighting over vouchers to the most exclusive items. Everyone outside is getting angrier and angrier because they know their chances to get what they want are diminishing quickly. Then the hood in them starts to come out. One person swears he will rob the first person who comes out with a TV. Another points at someone who bought a laptop inside saying “That’s my laptop!, That’s my Sh*t”. I felt like I was back in high school.

The next time they let people in, Im the first one in. And aparently I was the first of all of my friends to get in. I think the trick was to try to stay against the wall and slide right in while everyone is pushing each other. The first thing I do is go up to a rep and ask him if there are any TV vouchers left. He stares into outer space like a retard, so I move on to the next one. I ask really nicely, and this dude hands it right to me!!! I was like wow! I got it. I think since everyone who first got in was acting so crazy they decided not to give it to those who were acting up. I got the last one. Then I went to the front where they had most of the items right behind the counter and I was able to snag everything on my list. I got the pricier items first, payed for them.. then I went to get the cheaper stuff that wasn’t going anywhere.

Then we went to Circuit City where the lines were riddiculous. The average wait time on lines were 45 mins to an hour. One of my friends was working there. He was asked to work from 4:00 AM till 12:00 AM. Isn’t that illegal?

This is everything I got:

Staples
Western Digital 400GB MyBook External Hard Drive $99.98
Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $19.98
MAG 32″ Wide-Screen LCD HDTV $499.98
SanDisk Cruzer 1GB USB Flash Drive $7.98
Staples 6-Outlet Strip Surge Protector FREE
Staples Photo Plus Glossy Paper, 4″ x 6″, 60/pack $2.98
Staples Photo Supreme 8.5″ x 11″ Paper, Matte, 50/pack $5.98

Circuit City
Netgear WGT624 Super-G 108Mbps Wireless Broadband Router $9.99

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I tried to post my theory on someones blog but their authentication system was messed up so I’ll just share what I wante to say here:I’m a Muslim… and I think I can shed some light as to why the Muslim world can’t handle a joke about Islam. First of all you have to understand that the Satire that is used in the West is part of Western culture and has its roots in western thought and philosophy. The East (or the other side of the world), esp the Muslim world does not take raunchy, balsphemous, and other topics lightly. Aside from being sinful this kind of humor is corrosive to all moral sensibilities.The Danish Cartoons were seen as a direct assault on prophet Muhammad and by extension on Islam. Muslims do not like how Jesus (also a prophet of islam) is mocked in the west. We believe the prophets were chosen by God and were the best of mankind so out of respect we would never mock them. This includes Adam, Moses, Noah, Abraham, Jesus, Muhammad and many others.In the west I think we have become very desensitized. We ought to learn about the world beyond our hemisphere and treat others as human beings who have differing cultures and attitudes from us. (I say this as a simpsons watching American Muslim). I’d also like to think that Islam as a religion isnt made fun of on the simpsons, because there is nothing to make fun of But I do think Muslims would not mind if the cultural issues regarding Muslims are made fun of… but not when it comes to the religion itself. There are Muslim comedians you know, and they do poke fun of the Muslim community (but not of islam itself).

There are some nutty Muslims out there who think that the Simpsons is
an evil cartoon which was made to corrupt society. They always make
mention of Matt Groening being an anarchist. That does not prove
anything. If anything it makes him that much better at social
commentary because he sees the flaws in the system and in society.
Secondly they quote some things homer has said in the past: For example
One time Homer was in trouble so he pleaded for his life by saying
“Jesus, Allah, Buddha!”. Now some took offence to that. Why be offended
hes showing something very true. Someone who is otherwise irreligious
when put in a life threatening situation calls out to God. This shows
man’s natural inclination to seek the divine. If that message is not
Islamicly compatible then I don’t know what is. In another episode
Homer was training to become a body guard and this conversation
transpired: Bodyguard
coach: “As a personal
bodyguard, your only loyalty is to your protectee, not
anything else, not even Muhammed”. Homer: “Not even during Ramadan?”. I
think that was hilarious! Again Muslims take offence, but they are
missing the point.. they are showing that Muslims give loyalty to
Muhammad (S), always without question. While Christians are not so
solid in their loyalty to Jesus (they won’t defend him when he is
mocked or parodied). So the fact is that Muslims would not agree to
leave their loyalty to Muhammad for a second, while a Christian does
things seasonally thus the usage of the word Ramadan.

Another problem that Muslims have with the simpsons is that Homer
drinks Duff beer, Bart is out of control is the modern day dennis the
menace. Some Islamic speakers have went out of thier way to say the
Simpsons teaches you to be immoral, wreckless, disrespectful. I must
say its quite the opposite. The simpsons shows you the harmful effects
of things like alcoholism, the result of having a lack of education,
and the consequences for all of these things. They dont want you to be
like homer, they want you not to be like him, because he’s a moron.
That’s why people laugh at his stupidity. So when Homer says that he
must be god (in stone cutters episode) that shows you how stupid he is.
Another thing is family relations, no matter what happens to thier
family they always manage to come back together and reconcile, only if
Muslim families were like that.

Ironically the simspons has come to the Arab World,
and is called al-Shamshoon. Not only has it been dubbed in Arabic, but
the characters have been arabized. Homer becomes Omar, and Bart becomes
Bader… And as said on the daily show and the simpsons becomes not
funny. ha!.

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I always wanted Pennys but they were always too expensive for me back in the 90s. So now here was my chance to own a pair. So I went to like 10 stores…. the knicks version were sold out everywhere…From Jimmy Jazz to VIM, to Dr. Jays… My only hope was the smaller ghettoer stores. As I walked from street to street I couldn’t help but notice that posters and flyers for 50 Cent’s new movie were everywhere! I was like woah there is no way you could not know about this stupid movie. From Busses to even the counter tops in the smallest stores.. Jamaica is his hometown though… Funny I always thought Jamaica was my hometown! I was literally born there…

Back to the story… I go into one of these clothing/sneaker/suit stores and I hear english which sounds almost biblical being played in the speakers.. as I listen to the words… I think that sounds like something that would be in the Quran, next thing I know I hear some hardcore recitation! It was the Qur’an! The store owner who had a very nice size store was blasting Qur’an with english translation… mashallah… now thats some serious dawah right there! Then I went to this other store which was very ghettoish although it was nicely designed.. it had super hood products… the store was covered in more 50 Cent posters… so I go in there… and I walk by a person who is sitting down reading… I go up to see the black and white version of the pennys which are overpriced at $99…. (while Jimmy Jazz had them for $69) So I ask the person if he has them in the knicks colors he says no…. and then all of a sudden something catches my eye….. when this person was sitting down he was reading a book… a rather large sized book…. I instinctively thought he is either reading the bible or the Qur’an… so I said… so what are you reading? And he says “the Qur’an”, and Im like “You’re Muslim?” (noticing all late that he is wearing a beard) he complies and we exchange salams… by this point I am looking at his Qur’an… mashallah his Qur’an was tagged up with dividers, marked up with added notes…you could tell the brother had extensively been going through this copy. Mashallah it made me happy (and jealous).. this brother wasn’t wasting his Ramadan… even though he was stuck at work. So then I try to go to the colliseum (which is a super ghetto mini mall) and its locked…. but theres a sneaker store on the corner.. the last one I was going to try… I asked the guy if he had them and he did and he had my size. He wanted $120 I told him $100 straight… (even that for 100 I was thinking ouch thats expensive!). He wasn’t budging… so I left and went to work. Then right before Asr I thought let me go back.. And this time I tell him I can 110 straight.. and he agrees.. and I am a proud owner of the coolest Retro Pennys out.

For those of you who were not fortunate enough of knowing who Penny Hardaway is Just look at this cover of Slam Magazine from Nov 1996: When Penny Herbed Jordan (#45) letting him know that he should have never come back by swiftly wrapping around a pass around Jordan into the hands of Horace Grant, Mike’s former teammate who dunks right over him. Penny led Shaq to his first finals that year.

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Salaam to the Muslims,

I hope Mos Def comes across this. Brother, You need to fear Allah. How in the world do you start an album in the name of the Creator and include songs entitled “panties” and “Sex, Love, and Money”. And then make a filthy video with strippers in it? And I know everyone has noticied Mos has started cursing alot, using the N’ word amongst other behavorial changes i.e. smoking. Similar to how Q-Tip sold out on Islam when he made his Vibrant thing video and started dating famous women… it looks like Mos is also opting for HipHop over Islam. This site has a silly section on it which talks about how Mos Def tries to live his life as a Muslim in the best way he can. I think that is the past now for him. The Hiphop lifestyle has proven to be too strong for him to overcome his own desires and continue to live a righteous lifestyle. Like when Q-tip was asked about him straying from the deen, he said that you need a balance of hiphop and Islam in your life. There is no way to balance two very different ways of life. And yes hiphop is a way of life. You have to pick one. Dont start and end an album talking about Allah and Islam and do all this garbage and think its all good. I met Mos once, and it was in a masjid in Manhattan for Friday prayers. Afterwards he said he was going to the studio. Now I wonder which house of worship he will stay with. The whole Muslim community which is into hiphop became worried when they saw the miss fat booty video. Everyone was hoping he had a different message he was trying to get across. And maybe that he was just a little misguided in thinking that he could do anything forbidden in islam while its under the pretext of “acting”. All your money and fame is not going to go to the grave with you. It’s better to correct yourself now and turn to God in repentance. There are thousands of people who will follow what you say and do. There wouldnt be this website and discussion board dedicated to you if this wans’t the case. You have a tremendous amount of talent but are you using it wisely? Who gave you this talent in the first place? Who are you accountable to?

Wasslam,

Azeem Khan..

Some people on his most popular fansite were really upset that I was “judging him”. Hadrat Umar (R) the second Kaliph said that “Now revelation is gone, and we can not judge what is in peoples hearts, so we judge by their actions”. In Islam… when a Muslim sins privately that is between him and his lord. When he does it publically he becomes a Fasiq, which means if he is sinning openly the danger in that is that others will follow suit.The difference between Muslims and people of other religious backgrounds in America is that we have not adopted this dual outlook where we go to Church on Sunday, but we get Drunk and fornicate and Partay on Saturday night. So when a Muslim crosses over it goes against everything we stand for. All our actions have to represent Islam.Read up on the concept of being a Witness Unto Mankind. Every Muslim has to serve as a witness, as an ambassador of Islam. That is one of the reasons why people respected Mos in the first place. So now whats the difference between him and Trick Daddy?

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